User Reviews

The short-lived P.R.C. movie production company had a history of making junk in a really short period of time, and other than the classic film noir "Detour", most of their films are quickly forgettable. Like the slightly more well known Monogram, they produced a ton of Z grade westerns, some action films that took clichéd looks at the enemies of World War II, and a smaller amount of horror, dramas and comedies. This is a sort of exploitation drama about a young lady (Jean Parker) who faces the electric chair where her own boyfriend is the one who will pull the switch. Kindly psychiatrist Lionel Atwill rushes to prove her innocence of murder with the help of Parker's younger sister Marcia Mae Jones who truly believed her to be guilty. This is a very tense streamlined drama where nail biting must have replaced popcorn munching. The performances are all very good with Atwill being particularly outstanding. Nice to see him playing a good guy. Also nice to see Jones playing a not so annoying teen for a change! This is one of those times where I give two thumbs up to what was once considered the one movie studio where serious actors did not want to work.

A suspenseful, enjoyable and very melodramatic mystery movie, with Jean Parker, Marcia Mae Jones and Atwill, chilling as usual, and directed by Steve Sekely, peopled also by a few unlikable characters (the dedicated scientist, the fat sergeant), and made in a bombastic style reminiscent of Soviet cinema or silent movies, while Atwill only enhances this atmosphere of mayhem; Atwill didn't seem convinced that his character was not only a good guy, but also a nice one, so that his cordial smiles don't seem very reassuring. As a matter of fact, his undisguised occasional joy is even more creepy than his straight menace from his typecast roles, as it suggests insanity, more than cruelty. Marcia and Atwill give kindred performances, in the same popular expressive vein; Jean was above this kind of powerhouse role, and her acting has some class and even perhaps a resigned charm. And if the governor's sandwiches get sometimes laughed at, it's only because the scene is genuinely good.

I decided to watch this ultra-low budget film from the "Poverty Row" studio, PRC, because it co-starred the exciting character actor, Lionel Atwill—plus I really liked the title. Even though Atwill often played in these cheap movies, his excellent style of acting always made the films seem a lot better, as his screen persona was great (his real life is also quite interesting—sort of like a bizarre soap opera). The reason I use the term "Poverty Row" is that this was a nickname given to the very cheapest and worst production companies of the era. Many of these weren't even real studios, but production companies that rented space and sets from the major studios at night! Yes, there is a good chance this was filmed after normal working hours—a common thing for such studios.

The story begins with Lionel Atwill telling his friends a story about something that he was involved with years ago. A doctor falls in love with a lady but he's afraid to tell her about himself. That's because his job is putting people to death on Death Row—not exactly a glamor job! The Doc asks his friend (Atwill) for advice on how to break it to her, but regardless she won't have the man. Later, you realize it's because her own parents were criminals.

Later, a man is killed and the lady is implicated—though it's obvious to anyone with a brain that her sister was involved (and is a bit of a nut) and the evidence against the lady was poor. But, apparently the jury was filled with brainless people and she was convicted and sent to Death Row. Even more brainless is that her old boyfriend was the man who was responsible for her execution. Don't you think someone else might just be able to handle this case?! Until this fateful hour, her friend (Atwill) spends much of the film trying to prove her innocence—and prove that the flaky sister knows far more about the case than she'll admit.

Overall, the movie is only mildly interesting and a bit silly. While it is watchable and Atwill is good (as usual), the rest of the film never really rises above the mundane and some of the acting is pretty shabby. It's sub-par and about what you'd expect from such a low-budget flick—and nothing more despite the cool title.

"Lady In The Death House" is an interesting crime tale, largely told in flashbacks. Although the script has some hard-to-believe points, it does work up some suspense by the end. Although the production is very low budget, director Steve Sekely employs some creative "swipes" and other transition techniques from scene to scene. And although some of the supporting performances (particularly from the police inspector and the wide-eyed little sister) are a bit amateurish, Jean Parker gives an affecting performance as the doomed-to-die heroine (a 180 degrees different role for her from Kitty O'Day, whom she played the same year), and Lionel Atwill gives a solid center to the film in a rare, for him, good-guy role. The existing prints of this movie are pretty damaged, but I doubt we're going to get a remastered version anytime soon.

As the movie opens, Mary (Jean Parker) is making her way to the electric chair. Crimanologist/psychologist Charles Finch (Lionel Atwill) believes Mary to be innocent, but is running out of time to prove it. To make matter worse, Mary's boyfriend is the State's executioner and will throw the switch on Mary. Can Mary be saved in time?

Lady in the Death House is far from the worst of the Poverty Row films I've seen, but it still has a number or problems. First, there are far too many utterly ridiculous plot points. To start with, Mary's boyfriend is (conveniently) the executioner. Why not get someone else to do this one? Ridiculous! The witnesses used at the trial that help convict Mary saw the murder through a solid shade, meaning they only saw a silhouette. Any first year law student could have poked holes in this eyewitness evidence. Ridiculous! Next, as evidence is gathered that will clear Mary, the Governor, the only person who can stop her execution, has (inconveniently) stopped for a Denver sandwich and can't be reached. Again, ridiculous! There are many more of these ridiculous moments that make much of the movie . . . ridiculous.

That's not to say it's all bad. Lady in the Death House does feature better than expected (at least for this kind of movie) acting. Lionel Atwill is the kind of actor that's always good. It's an interesting change of pace seeing him play the hero. Jean Parker, Douglas Fowley, and Marcia Mae Jones hold up their end and give solid performances. Another plus is the "look" of the film. A lot of these Poverty Row films look like they were shot on the same dirty, poorly lit set. Not here. Sets and lighting look better than the budget would suggest. Finally, I thought the use of flashbacks was a nice way to tell the story of Lady in the Death House. We see Mary headed to the electric chair, but have to wait 50+ minutes to see if she really is put to death. Quite nice.

Overall, the bad outweighs the good and I'm left rating the movie a 4/10.

****SPOILERS**** With his girlfriend Mary Kirk Logan, Jean Parker,to be executed that evening at 11:00 PM sharp the Sing Sing Prison executioner Dr. Brad Bradford, Douglas Fowley, is finding it more and more difficult to do his job in juicing her, by pulling the switch, in the prison's hot seat. It's then that the movie goes into back or forward mode, were not quite sure which one, with famed psychologist Charles Finch, Lionel Atwill, telling a group of friends about a letter he received from Mary just before she was to be executed. In it Mary explains how she's been framed in killing the person who was blackmailing her, in revealing her dad's criminal past to her boss, mobster Willy Mullin, Dick Curtis, by someone who did him in while she was locked up in another room in her apartment.

The flashback scene comes across as if it were in the present making it more and more difficult to gage what time is taking place in the movie. We slowly get the message that it was Mary's kid sister the bug eyed and spaced out Suzy, Marcia Mea Jones, who knew who killed Millen and is covering it up at the expense of her older sister Mary's life. It's Finch who slowly uncovers the person, through a number of clues, who killed Millen but as usual in movies like this, working against the clock, time is running out for Mary to be saved from being zapped. With the only person who can save her Governor Harrison, Sam Flint, nowhere to be found and contacted before 11:00 PM the time for Bradford to pull the switch.

****SPOILERS**** Lionel Atwill in one of his last appearances, he passed away two years later, is excellent as both psychologist and part time private eye Charles Finch who saves the day as well as Mary Kirk's life by getting the Governor, through a radio broadcast, to get the news that Mary is innocent and stop her execution. But it was Mary's boyfriend Brad Bradford that made that all possible by at the very last moment refusing to pull the switch and locking himself up in the power room that gave Finch the needed time to get the word out to Gov. Harrison about her being innocent. Thus stopping in the nick of time Mary's impending execution.

By the extremely humble standard of PRC, this is not a bad movie at all. In fact, if we can accept the somewhat unbelievable manipulations of the plot (e.g. the doomed heroine's boyfriend just happens to the state's official executioner) and the implied but strong criticism of the U.S.A. justice system, it's quite a revelation. Here are just a few of many examples of the script's unstated but strongly implied resumé of slip-shod "justice": Short- sighted Byron Foulger's testimony is, to say the least, highly questionable, but the heroine's totally inept attorney doesn't call him to account at all, and the half asleep judge is so totally incompetent that he too notices nothing unusual in either the testimony itself or the way it is interpreted. Nor presumably does the judge intervene when the jury delivers an obviously half-baked verdict. Worst of all, we are then presented with a careless and totally irresponsible governor – presumably a Republican – who doesn't bother to stay at his desk on the night of the execution, let alone ring the prison or have his secretary stand by at the phone. Instead, he's gadding about at a roadside diner! Fortunately, Lionel Atwill manages to hold the plot together and, despite all, the film does emerge as a second feature winner. Jean Parker makes an attractively convincing heroine, while Douglas Fowley holds down an unusual role as the sympathetic executioner. Available on an excellent Grapevine DVD coupled with the far superior 20th Century Fox "B", Behind Green Lights.

This low-budget but entertaining crime thriller about a dame scheduled to die in the electric chair for a murder that she didn't commit is a fine example of a movie that impugns the death penalty. Mary Kirk Logan (Jean Parker)has been shielding her younger sister Suzy and herself from the truth that her father was a criminal in the pin-ball racket. Nevertheless, one of her father's old accomplices, Willis Millen (Dick Curtis) has come back to blackmail her because he knows that she has some of her dad's dough. Moreover, Millen knows that her stiff, stuck-up, morally superior boss, Gregory (George Irving),will fire her if he catches a whiff of her shady past. Actually, Mary's boss at the bank, who hired her because he needed somebody who he could trust to handle confidential information, played a crucial role in a law and order crusade to put her father behind bars. As it turns out, Mary has been paying a high price to buy the silence of her the silence of her father's former associate. Ironically, the villain who is blackmailing Mary is considered a low-life even by his own kind. Mary has managed to fool Gregory about her checkered past for five years.

"Lady in the Death House" opens with Mary taking the final 39 steps of her life to the electric chair. She has been convicted of a murder that she didn't commit based on the testimony of two passersby who were staring up at the window in her apartment when the murder occurred. All these two spectators really saw was two dark shadows against a fully lighted window with the shade pulled down. Nevertheless, they swear under oath that they saw Mary kill Millen. It doesn't help matters that they rushed up to Mary's apartment after the murder and found the slain man in the floor with the murder weapon--a statue--nearby his body. Millen uttered Mary's name as his final words and the police detective (Cy Kendall)puts two and two together to convict Mary. Since Millen was trying to blackmail Mary, the detective argues that Mary killed Millen to thwart his scheme. Happily for Mary, she knows a tenacious criminologist Charles Finch (Lionel Atwill) who uses his skills to set her free.

"Revenge of the Zombies" director Steve Sekely tells the story in flashback for maximum suspense and doesn't have Mary exonerated until the last three minutes.

LADY IN THE DEATH HOUSE is an economical and familiar thriller of the 1940s, centred around a young woman who ends up wrongfully accused and put on Death Row awaiting her imminent execution. There are touches of science fiction and horror in the premise alongside a supporting role for villainous old-hand Lionel Atwill, but otherwise this is a straight-up thriller with a predictable outcome.